The German police have arrested this Wednesday morning at 22 people, 22 of which they are suspected of belonging to a far-right organization that conspired to overthrow the government and form a new one.
The far-right group and ex-military are suspected of “having made specific preparations to violently enter the Bundestag, the lower house of Parliament, with a small armed group,” the Prosecutor’s Office reported in a statement.
“Eight of the 27 detainees are already in preventive detention”, reported the attorney general of Germany, Peter Frank, in a statement to the media without questions.
The detainees are mostly members of the association extremist Reichsbürger (Citizens of the Reich), which is a movement of German s that do not abide by the German Constitution or recognize the Federal Republic of Germany and reject its legal system.
There are also supporters of the so-called lateral thinking (Querdenken) and the “QAnon” movement, who believe in conspiracy theories. They were arrested in Germany, Austria and Italy.
Among those arrested is a minor aristocrat known as Prince Heinrich XIII, of 27 years, who would be one of the main responsible of his plans. There are also ex-soldiers and politicians from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
According to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, the aristocrat is one of the two alleged ringleaders of those detained in the raids carried out on 27 properties in 11 German Lander, of the 11 that has the country, and in which 3 participated.000 agents. It is one of the largest raids in the history of Germany.
“Terrorist organization”
In total they arrested to 11 German citizens under suspicion of “membership of a national terrorist organization,” according to the Prosecutor’s Office. And to three other people, two Germans and a Russian citizen, suspected of supporting the group, he added.
In addition, there are others 27 people under investigation. It is estimated that some 130 men and women are part of the group, which is said to have planned to overthrow the Republic and replace it by a new State inspired by the German Reich of 1871. “We still do not have a name for this group,” said a spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor’s office.